As I write, the 2010 Tour de France is drawing to an end and I can’t help but see parallels between succeeding in this seminal cycling race and business.

Contrary to popular belief, cycling is far from an individual sport: certainly, to win the Tour de France requires individual talent. But history is filled with highly talented riders who never wore the yellow (race leader) jersey, or the green or dotted shirts either.

Competitive cycling is about teamwork and playing to your strengths

An individual, no matter how strong, cannot make it over a 3,000 kilometre-long race alone. Technical, logistical, tactical and moral assistance from a well-organised and resourced team is key for cycling success just as small details and a few seconds, here or there, can decide the race winner.

These days, every racing team in the Tour has professional riders, mechanics, medical staff and dieticians, support cars with radios and the most advanced bikes. Just like in business, equipment and technology has become standard.

What did I notice that makes the most difference? Compatibility and collaboration of the people involved on the road and behind the scenes. They set and execute the race strategy (based on their team’s unique strengths) and make sure they quickly adapt their tactics when things change.

In difficult terrain (often climbing on narrow roads in high mountains) and in the face of severe and changing conditions (scorchingly hot sun and cold rain), along with fierce competition for the ultimate prize, even stars like Lance Armstrong depend on others. Without proper and timely support, they can lose a stage, or the whole race, regardless of their talent.

In the Tour, like in business, talent and strength can win a stage, but clear strategy and dependable teamwork are what wins a high placing in the overall standings.

It might sound obvious, but consider how interlinked you are. Who do you depend on to give your best performance day in, day out? Whose success depends on you? Are you geared up to win your race? Do you know the strengths, and weaknesses, of your team-mates? Performance in Le Tour is like performance in business: apparently ‘soft’ skills, like self-knowledge, trust and teamwork, turn out to be intrinsically linked to success.

According to HR Magazine, employers fear their workforce’s lack of skills will hamper an enterprise’s recovery.

We are meeting more and more employees who we find in a state of paralysis or fear over the economic situation and, faced with job cuts and budget cuts, they feel less empowered to take action and are finding it even harder to see where they can add value. One option is to bury your head in the sand. Another is to create an environment where the team can get into flow and create some ideas to generate profit… ideas with legs.

This of course is the key to the success. Sometimes, just a simple discussion to get clarity about what would be of the most value right now can have a dramatic impact on the bottom line and, more importantly, confidence to continue doing it.

Following just a one hour performance consulting discussion last week with one of my clients, who has been experiencing this paralysis, they were able to create a £100k action that can be implemented immediately, at no extra cost to the bsuiness, just by doing some simple accountability restructuring within the team.

So go on, have a conversation about it. It’s not just about getting more training or developing new skills, sometimes its just about thinking differently.